All right! We are doing a double dose of Nash for this. Long chapter btw but I had fun writing it.
The weekend arrived like a strike of thunder. For the days until that accursed date, Menat had been puttering around, making sure that everything looked perfect for her imperfect Prince Charming. More selfishly for Charlie, she had not visited him once, let alone slept next to him. At least he knew how to light those blasted incense sticks himself but that wasn't even the issue at all.
The issue was today. That being Vega's arrival that afternoon, as evident from the noises upstairs. Charlie couldn't hear the conversation that ensued, but he sure as hell didn't want to either. His body tensed when footsteps ran down the stairs, through the wine cellar, ending when someone hammered on the door before it opened and Menat entered. She hurried to his side with her array of makeup utensils.
"All right, let me just fix you really quick," she said, applying the makeup like she usually did but with quite a serious expression. Without as much as a second look, she turned to the door, saying; "Please come upstairs."
And then she was gone.
Charlie sighed, took his glasses, and unfolded them. He was lucky to find another pair for sale during an errand run for Rose. With a heavy heart, he ascended the stairs to the first floor. The kitchen table was a fine size for four people, but it bordered on cramped with five.
Maggio and Nash had to rub shoulders with each other to fit everyone but that was the least of the issues present. The biggest problem was Vega, having taken Maggio's seat while ogling Menat when he wasn't ogling Rose. He didn't even acknowledge Nash when he entered or looked at Maggio for that matter.
Either he was too preoccupied with the women present or he just really hated men – while being a man.
Soon, Menat sat next to him, finishing the last preparations for dinner and he seemed to inch closer to her. Watching how he touched her, and she smiled so widely made Charlie nauseous. Given what he knew of the man, he had a very hard time believing everything Vega did was genuine. He wasn't genuine back when, he sure as hell wasn't now.
He just showed up and used his charms to wrap her around his clawed little finger, modestly unimpressed but tolerant of her weirdness and quirks. Menat tempered them for him like they were a flaw. All for the sake of one date. For a stranger really. For someone like Vega. Someone who didn't deserve her yet had wrapped her up in this farce.
Charlie sat, silent as the grave (and he should slap himself for that), picking at his food, his stomach tying knots to force him to focus on literally anything than the pair across from him and their not-so-subtle flirting. Well, more so Vega. Menat giggled and purred at everything he said, completely absorbed by him.
Then again, Vega talked to no one but her and maybe Rose if she pursed her lips enough. It was sickening. Even worse than the petty feeling stirred up inside Charlie, so intensely reminding him of his affections, so pathetically powerful.
A tidal wave of bitterness and jealousy trickled over him and settled uncomfortably deep within his heart. For a moment, he wondered if everyone else being here was just invented out of pity as it seemed that their presence was wholly unneeded.
The entire dinner was littered with Menat and Vega laughing and joking about everything and nothing at the same time and some bragging from the Spaniard. For moments, Charlie could see a slither of reservation in Menat's eyes, every time she was told a fantastical story about Vega's wealth and yet, she rolled with it like everything was fine.
Everything was not fine.
Someone setting fire to the entire building would be better than this long drag until the operation was to commence. Jealousy choking the unnatural life out of Charlie was a better option.
"I must say, the food is quite exquisite," Vega looked at Rose for once, as if to imply she had been cooking. This embittered Menat somewhat as she leaned over the table, resting on her elbows.
"I did cook with some – a lot of – help from Master."
"Oh, I'd say you did most of the work," Rose smiled for the first time since the dinner started. It quickly faded when Vega stared at Menat with a musing smirk on his face.
"I see beauty is not all you've learned from your master."
"You can learn beauty? Pfft, horseshit," Maggio quipped from across the table. He thoroughly ignored the glare from Menat. Surprisingly or not so, Rose said nothing to reprimand him, probably because he was saying what everyone was thinking.
"Maggio, mind your language!" Menat chided and he sat back in his chair, drawing out each syllable loudly; "Horseshit!"
Only then did Vega acknowledge him. A dark look on his face emerged as he looked directly ahead of him for once. Despite the calmness of his voice, he looked ready to leap over the table and stab the young man's eyes out. "Pardon me, did you say something?"
Oh. This guy was just the worst. As if reading everyone's thoughts again, Maggio stood up, leaning over the table, not afraid of the deathly stare from Vega.
"I'm saying that-"
"He's terribly sorry for cursing. Please excuse us," Menat jumped from her seat and turned to Rose. "Master, would you be so inclined to let us have some wine?"
Rose blinked, then narrowed her eyes as she answered. Charlie had a strong feeling that she picked up on the bullshit fairly quickly. "…Yes, you may."
"Thank you. We'll be in the common room," Menat ushered Vega to follow her, leaving their plates on the table.
Vega, the slimy fuck, took the opportunity to slide his hand over her back as they left the kitchen, leaving the three people behind, utterly confused, and dumbfounded at the entire charade. Without the scent of choking lavender colognes or the white noise of excessive bragging, everyone felt like they could finally hear and breathe again, and with that, Operation Cat Trap could begin.
"What the shit? She doesn't even like wine!" Maggio huffed as Rose stood up to gather plates and leftovers. She shot Charlie a weird look when she saw how little (or nothing rather) he had eaten.
"I suppose you didn't listen to the story of the super, amazing fairy tale castle that was the winery, he inherited from his aunt? Pride is quite the tiresome personality trait," she quipped, as exacerbated as everyone felt.
"…More like narcissism. Fuck me," Maggio threw his hands up.
"Rose, do you mind if we snatch a couple of bottles of that cheap wine from the party?" Charlie posed a question with no sarcasm intended at all.
In all his time staying here, he had not touched a drop of alcohol. If he ever was to drink something, it would have to be scotch, which he only mentioned in passing. He wondered if Rose saw through his bullshit as well but apparently not since he mentioned the cheap wine.
"Oh, please do!" she exclaimed, "The boxes are ruining my collection."
Shortly after, Guile arrived with two bottles of unopened tequila and a film. The wine was just part of the plan to give Maggio the boost he needed to be really annoying, not to get outright blasted. Charlie stared at the bottles in worry.
"Guile!" Maggio came running with DVDs and wine to high-five him, "Did you bring the Splatterfield remake?"
"I did. Got some weird looks from Julia and Amy when I bought them, but they'd rather watch comedies anyway," he gestured with the bag that contained all the necessary "equipment".
"Awesome, man! We got the wine. Charlie, bring the glasses," Maggio smiled as he made his way upstairs to Rose's bedchamber and the common room with the bottles of alcohol.
With a weird feeling in his gut, Charlie headed to the kitchen and got three mugs. He should probably have gotten glasses, but he wasn't in the mood for anything fancy. Behind him, Guile stood in the doorway, tapping the DVD case against his forearm with a curious looking on his face.
"I feel like a teenager again, trying to make my friends hook up," it came out of him completely unprovoked.
Charlie nearly dropped the mugs. Shit, had he been that obvious? He could feel himself stiffen, trying to come up with a thousand excuses to deny his feelings, those he thought he had buried deep within his heart. He couldn't bin them or remove them just yet, but he hoped to keep them hidden at least.
"Oh, I'm talking about Maggio," Guile said after a few more moments of Charlie staring blankly at him like he had been speaking Esperanto.
Right. Well, Maggio was a better choice than Vega. And Charlie for that matter, who would almost be okay if Maggio end with Menat; at least she'd be with someone who could treat her well – someone alive.
"…Maggio already said he's not into her," Charlie shrugged, making his way out of the kitchen with Guile in tow.
"Of course, he's gonna say that. He's not gonna admit it without some probing. That's tough for anyone," The good soldier said and had a damn good point if not most interactions between the two apprentices had been sibling-esque teasing and bickering about minor things. As siblings tended to do.
Or an old married couple.
"He did say she was like a second sister to him."
Guile laughed at this. "But they're not siblings. C'mon, Charlie. Don't buy his bullshit. There's still a chance for him and Menat."
"…You say that while she's lowkey getting dragged to bed by a dipshit Spaniard."
"Under normal circumstances. Look, we got a mission complete so let's go get 'em, soldier," Guile put his hand on Charlie's shoulder as he would do in the good old days. A moment's flicker of nostalgia.
"Yes, sir," Charlie, honest to God, smiled. Not so much because of the plan but at the moment recaptured from an old life. Despite the immature insanity of the mission that they were embarking on, he felt in high spirits, all the way to the door of the common room.
Without knocking, Maggio flung the door open, interrupting the couple in what appeared to be a rather deep discussion. Menat froze in her seat and Vega, well…Charlie had enough interrogation training to pick up the subtleties of someone's emotions and he saw fury in the Spaniard's eyes for all but a split second, even in the orange candlelight. On the table were two glasses and an opened bottle of wine. Expensive sherry.
"You guys wanna watch a movie?" Maggio walked over to the tv and the DVD player, turning the thing on, ignoring a worried Menat, who gazed around the room and paled when she saw Charlie, more or less blocking the exit.
"I got the Splatterfield remake," Guile announced before Menat could protest this.
Her eyes lit up at this and she nearly jumped from the couch of excitement, then forced herself to relax, folding her hands in her lap and crossing her legs in a position that seemed unnatural for her. But her intense stare at the DVD as it was being started gave her honest feelings away.
Soon the movie was underway alongside Operation Cat Trap with Guile and Maggio having quite possibly the blast of their lives, sipping on drinks, and talking about terrible acting and bad effect while Charlie sat silently in the corner, clutching his mug with the weird blend of water, tequila, and wine.
He had a strong feeling that he'd get very familiar with this foul-tasting cocktail. He had not tested his tolerance since his death and already the familiar distant buzz of alcohol began to simmer in his blood.
On the couch, Menat took to drinking her wine, trying not to grimace at the taste, trying to dull her worries it seemed. While Guile and Maggio talked, Vega the insufferable git caught her attention once more, making her pull these starry-eyed expressions at everything he said. Occasionally, he'd glare at a particularly loud Maggio purposely overreacting to a gory kill from the Splatterfield killer.
It was a wonderfully fortuitous thing Rose had decided to leave the building for the night to catch a play at a nearby opera house and the noise from a drunk Maggio and the movie at max volume seemed to be loud enough to raise the dead. With only one and a half mugs of terrible cocktail, Charlie finally felt the buzz hit him, and with it came his infamous weak will against his own emotions.
Watching Vega put his arm around Menat and tug her close while he sneered at the film didn't help either. His snide comments made Menat giggle quite frivolously even when he had said nothing even close to funny. Either the wine was getting to her or she was just faking her laughter to appease him out of pure convention.
The four of them sat there, watching Splatterfield and other un-romantic cinematic material but Menat and Vega seemed wholly uninterested, whispering sweet nothings to each other, with the former looking like she had reached Nirvana and the latter having the look of someone ready to strip her naked and take her straight to Nirvana in Rose's bed.
Charlie was almost curious about what was being said and then not. He was certain he'd puke if he was told. Or maybe it was the alcohol. At one point, Menat stood up, about to excuse herself when Vega grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into a kiss right in front of everyone. Slimy, lingering, lasting way too long. Enough for Charlie to wish some freak accident would occur where Guile "accidentally" sent the Spaniard flying out the window with a Sonic Boom.
Menat stepped back, almost falling over backward over the coffee table. Her eyes went blank and her cheeks reddened as she quietly excused herself, maneuvering around Charlie to get out. Now alone with his enemies, Vega rose from the couch and pressed the pause button on the remote. He moved and took a position right in front of the screen, right in front of the face reveal of the Splatterfield killer. How apt.
"I do so you wonder why she tolerates the shenanigans of you ugly, sad, pathetic people," he sneered and folded his arms over his chest. He looked at the three of them, resting his eyes on Charlie. When he was met with an intense, glazed, furious glare, he just fucking smiled. He just had to lick his lips, the creep. It seemed that he found someone whose buttons he could try and push to see how far he could bully them.
"Showed your true colors, did you?" Guile put his drink on the coffee table, while Maggio looked ready to hurl his mug at Vega's face but neither of them was his newly found target.
"I'm just voicing my concerns," he continued, keeping his eyes locked on Charlie, determined to torment him until either Menat returned or someone flipped out.
"Medina is quite the tasty treat. Exquisite and pleasing. Don't ruin her chance with me. It would be a great humiliation if she had to come crawling to me and beg for forgiveness."
"Medina? The fuck? Get her name right, asshole!" Maggio was ready to leap off the couch and right at Vega's throat, only held back by Guile.
Dammit, Maggio, Charlie cursed internally, that was bait. So obviously bait meant to rile someone up. But it sure was effective and telling for that matter. It made it quite clear that Menat didn't mean jack shit to Vega, not with the vile way he spoke about her like she was a piece of steak. He kept staring at Charlie like he was slowly trying to figure out what would upset him the most.
"I wonder if a certain rotten corpse could do such a simple task as remembering her name. Tell me, does your brain still function, or did the bullets destroy the left side too?" Vega asked, like an angel with a mouth filled with venom. A poison that seeped into old wounds like salt.
Charlie shouldn't be surprised that he knew this. He wouldn't bring it up if he didn't know but then again, this piece of shit had been rubbing shoulders with M. Bison. They probably had it on footage. The pain of a life ending too quickly caused Charlie to jump to his feet, ignoring how his mind began to swim.
"Oh, did I hurt you? Did the words of truth and beauty wound the ugly feelings of a pathetic, rotting, little thing?" Vega smirked, rubbing each word into the wounds like a true sadist.
"…I'd advise you to shut the fuck up," Charlie spoke short and terse. He hardly heard the door to the common room click open.
"Or what? Gonna fling a piece of moldy meat at me? Don't make me laugh. You're nothing but a bag of filth and death. A crime against nature. A monster. You don't deserve life…or her," Vega smirked again, now fully aware of what cut the deepest.
You don't have a crush you need to impress.
You don't deserve her.
You're dead.
There it went. The last thread of composure, Charlie had. The final straw which broke the camel's back had arrived. With the alcohol in his blood, the boiling anger in his gut, and the room spinning from standing up too quickly, his body felt like it was shattering in two, but he was quite ready to bring a sudden end to this farce.
His emotions got the better of him, pulling him away from logical doctrine. The plan had been to make Vega so tired of everyone that he left or get disinterested in Menat so he'd leave her alone. Instead, the plan took a deep dive into some realm it shouldn't be in as Charlie raised his fist and planted it directly to the middle of Vega's face with the speed of a viper and the strength of a bear.
He had learned the hard way that revenge was a meaningless endeavor. It only temporarily quenched one's thirst but never ended their bitterness. It didn't bring back loved ones or someone's life. Things were still as shitty as they were before. And yet, Charlie would concur that this act of retribution felt wonderful. Even better when Vega stumbled backward, almost crashing into the tv behind him. He grabbed his jaw and rubbed it, spitting out a tooth.
"Charlie-" Guile began, horrified and interrupted by Maggio standing up on the couch, flailing like a rabid fan at a sports game.
"That was fucking awesome! How do you like the sound of that, bitch? Changed your tune, didn't it?"
This victory was punctuated by the trail of blood that came from Vega's lip and then slightly eroded when Charlie stood with the feeling that he just might have done something very dumb. At least he could bask in the perverted sense of pride he felt, just as Vega gathered himself with a look of pure hatred on his face, eyes stretched wide, lips thin.
Like he had been possessed by a demon, he returned the favor, punching Charlie in the side of his jaw, and sending him flying toward the doorway. Open doorway. He expected to land on the ruby-colored carpet, but he didn't expect the petite body, to collide with his as they crashed to the floor. Someone yelped under him, and he quickly rolled out of the way, seeing Menat lying on the floor with a shocked expression. She stared at him, then at Vega in the doorway.
"Disgusting, filthy creature. How dare you touch me. How dare you!" he spat, rubbing his face as if it was broken. So, his one good trait was a no-go zone, got it.
"Then keep your fat mouth shut and fuck off while you're at it," Charlie smirked with no warmth whatsoever.
"I don't take orders from a piece of garbage cadaver. You call that awful face paint a disguise? Hideous. Do the world a favor and return to the grave or I'll gladly put you six feet under where you belong, zombie," Vega raised his fist, revealing his freakishly long fingernails.
Before Charlie could say another word, Menat stepped in front of him, raised her palm, and slapped it across Vega's face with a loud smack, it was as if his head had popped. He stared at her, stunned like he had been scolded by a parent for the first time, and she responded with such wrath, Charlie hadn't seen from her, not even when she argued with Maggio.
"Get. Out. Now," she said like she was moments away from biting his head off. Vega's eyes darkened, and so did his smirk. He didn't say a word (thank the nonexistent gods) and turned around to leave without even saying goodbye.
Thus came the end of the date and Operation Cat Trap.